Paul Rudd To Star In Errol Morris' Adaptation Of 'We Froze The First Man'

By
Kevin Jagernauth
|
The PlaylistJuly 12, 2011 at 9:55AM

Steve Zaillian's Film Rites Producing; 'Stranger Than Fiction' Writer Zach Helm PenningNo sooner than we post about a new Errol Morris movie, "The Demon In The Freezer," than another big update comes in for one of the handful of other projects he's got brewing. The famed documentarian is currently doing the press rounds for his forthcoming film "Tabloid" and it looks like he's parceling out new info about some of his upcoming movies.

No sooner than we post about a newErrol Morris movie, "The Demon In The Freezer," than another big update comes in for one of the handful of other projects he's got brewing. The famed documentarian is currently doing the press rounds for his forthcoming film "Tabloid" and it looks like he's parceling out new info about some of his upcoming movies.

Talking with The Washington Post Morris let it drop that Paul Rudd would lead his adaptation of the memoir “We Froze The First Man.” The cryogenic comedy, that will also draw on “You’re As Cold As Ice” a story featured on the NPR program “This American Life," will follow the book's author Bob Nelson in the 1960s as he joins a group of fellow enthusiasts who believe they can cheat death through cryonics. Unfortunately, Bob makes a few mistakes along the way and has to admit to family members of those he had tried to freeze that he messed up.

It's a script written by Zach Helm, the writer behind "Stranger Than Fiction," and first feature-length screenplay script since "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." Steven Zaillian's Film Rites company is producing with Garett Basch and NPR's Ira Glass. A hot script, we're told this is one that is enticing some major talents and should likely end up on the 2011 Blacklist.

It's a typically wacky Morris tale, one that fits into his usual themes of (eccentric) life and death, but told through the prism of a period setting and the less advanced scientific age of the '60s, the story certainly seems ripe dramedy material. Morris had told us that the film was casting up and seemed to indicate it was moving forward and with this revelation it seems likely to be his next film. Rudd is currently busy on Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" spinoff but his calendar is pretty open afterward so if everything comes together, perhaps he'll go to this next.

The film will be Morris' first narrative feature since "Dark Wind" in 1991 with Lou Diamond Phillips though the less said about that one, the better. For more on the oddball story, listen to the NPR episode below.